Statement of NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous on Martin Luther King, Jr. day

January 17, 2010

Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. was a moral giant and cherished hero of the world— a
tireless champion of the poor and oppressed against the
powerful. He understood the inescapable mutability of our
fates and entreated the nation to embrace peace, justice and
equality. He called on us to love humanity and one another
and to fight for a just society.

This year our celebration of Dr. King’s legacy has taken a solemn
tone, as the unimaginable tragedy that has struck our brothers and
sisters in Haiti weighs heavily on hearts. It is, however, in these
times of great suffering that we find comfort, leadership and
inspiration from our heroes. As Dr. King said, “the time is
always right to do what is right,” and as Americans there can be no
better way to celebrate Dr. King’s life then to give what we can to
assist the people of Haiti that have lost their homes, business,
family members, and livelihoods. The contributions made by the
country of Haiti and Haitian Americans have helped shape our
country into what it is today. The time is now for all of
America and the world to band together to help relieve the
suffering of the Haitian community, rebuild the nation and renew
the spirit of all Haitians and Haitian Americans.

Dr. King was a man of vision and prescience. Sadly, many of
his speeches are just as relevant today as they were over 40 years
ago. He courageously raised his voice against war. Dr. King
spoke of the destructive impact of the Vietnam War draining
resources from the fight against poverty and exhorted people to see
the war as “an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such,” He
spoke on behalf of the Vietnamese people that we were
fighting. “They must weep as the bulldozers roar through
their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander
into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American
firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So far we may have
killed a million of them, mostly children. They see the children
selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their
mothers. It is clear to them that we are on the side of the
wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.”

Today, we are at war in two nations.

Much of Dr. King’s work was to end the scourge of poverty and he
began to question the essence of our prevailing economic
system. “We must ask the question why there are forty
million poor people in America. And when you begin to ask that
question, you are raising questions about the economic system,
about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question,
you begin to question the capitalistic economy.”

Today the forty million of poor Dr. King spoke of has barely
decreased with 39.2 million Americans living in poverty. The
greed and excesses of our system has led to one of the worst
recessions in history.

Dr. King championed labor describing the labor movement as the
“principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and
progress. When in the thirties the wave of union organization
crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only
itself but the whole society,” he said.

Today, the laws on union organizing have been weakened and the
percentage of unionized workers has fallen from 36 percent in 1945
to 12.4 percent of American workers, only 7.6 percent in the
private sector.
Finally, Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Of all the forms of
inequality, injustice in health care is the most inhumane.” He made
that pronouncement more than 40 years ago, and we are still
struggling to eliminate that injustice. Thankfully we have
made great strides in the with a comprehensive Health Care Reform
package that will begin to ease the burden on America’s
families.
Dr. King would be deeply satisfied at the progress we have
made. The historic election of our nation’s first African
American president, the rise of many prominent Black Americans to
the pinnacle of politics and business. But Dr. King was a man
of the poor and he would remind us that the struggle is not
over. The dream has not yet been achieved. That the
disparities in the criminal justice system, in poverty, in health
and in employment that still plague our communities means that we
have a long way to go.

Dr. King won a Nobel Peace Prize, and the hearts and minds of
millions of people around the world. He changed our country
and our world for the better. He offered us a shining paragon
that we can strive for and ideals that we should endeavor to live
up to. Today we can best honor Dr. King’s life and
commemorate his death by continuing his noble work for a just
society with equal opportunity for all, humankind, peace,
economic democracy and a political system within which the rights
of all are enshrined.

“In the end”, said Dr. King, “we will remember not the words of
our enemies, but the silence of our friends….. Injustice anywhere
is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest
civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and
supporters throughout the United States and the world are the
premier advocates for civil and human rights in their communities,
conducting voter mobilization and advocating for equal opportunity
in the public and private sectors.